AI's unfair trading

[rschissler]

I'm playing my first game at Emperor and realize that trading or buying techs is a big factor on the higher difficulty. For the first part of the game I put my research slider on 0-10% so I could buy techs. What I seem to have noticed is that the AI civs base the value of techs by how much gold I have. A couple times I would inquire about buying a tech and felt like the price was too high so I said "Nevermind". Then a couple turns later, after I had accumulated more gold, I would inquire again, but the price would be even higher.

Is this right? It doesn't seem fair. I feel that a tech should have a fair value irregardless of how much gold I have.

 

[Tomoyo]

If you have more, naturally, the AI should ask more. That doesn't mean that they won't sell it for the previous price though.

I think...

 

[microbe]

Tech price isn't affected by how much you have. It could vary by other reasons, like how many AI know this tech already, and how much you have invested in researching it.

 

[Sid Monster]

Tech price isn't affected by how much you have. It could vary by other reasons, like how many AI know this tech already, and how much you have invested in researching it.

Does this mean if I have been researching this tech for some time they would sell it for more than if I havn't been researching it at all?

 

[Tomoyo]

Does this mean if I have been researching this tech for some time they would sell it for more than if I havn't been researching it at all?

Nope...

 

[Chieftess]

The AI also gets a trading bonus on higher levels.

 

[IbnSina]

I am certain that the tech price does not depend on how much gold you have. It can vary a little from one AI civ to another. I have also many times found that the AI quote a price one turn in gpt + mif (money-in-front), and I decline. A few turns later I have more gold accumulated and inquire again, and the same AI now wants less gpt and more mif. In either case, you should be able to negotiate vigorously and find out the real price.

 

[Mr. Do]

We know tech price can vary due to things like more AI's knowing it, but that can't be the reason why the price would get HIGHER as rschissler observes! Either rschissler has been mistaken in his observation (Which I doubt it, if he specifically remembered it and made a thread about it), or there is a reason why it will accept less gold one turn compared to the next.

I think that the only case where this would happen is where the AI would demand all your money and let you have the tech, and will only let it go cut-price in that circumstance because it knows you ca't pay more. But if this is so, then that could lead to a possible exploit, as you could simply buy some improvements or give money to other civs and then pay the lower price for a tech right away...

Also perhaps the AI charges according to relative power. It could be that it got more powerful in the turns after the original offer, and so would require more compensation to let the tech go. This might be what's happening, as really powerful AI's never seem willing to let a really old tech go for a low price (Unless it's useless) if there's a huge power disparity, which may be why once an AI civ falls behind, it never gets back in the tech race...

 

[Renata]

It's nothing all that complicated, I don't think. That AI has, I believe, two prices in its "brain" for any sale of tech: its quoted price, and the actual price (the lowest it will accept). The quoted price is typically 10% or so higher than the actual price. I'm guessing, although I can't be certain, that in your first trade, you had money to offer that added up to somewhere between the two prices. Since the AI could accept what you actually had (you had more than their actual price), they were able to ask for just that.

A few turns later, you'd accumulated more; therefore they could ask for more, up to their upper-limit "quoted" price. As someone observed, though, the *actual* price -- the rock-bottom negotiated price below which you can't drop off a single gp and still have them accept -- should not have changed.

I'm not aware of any mechanism in the game for techs to go up in price. If you meet more civs who know the tech, the price drops. If you do part-research on a tech, the price drops proportional to the number of beakers you have invested. If more civs learn the tech, the price drops.

The only other thing it could be is if you asked two different civs on the two turns -- prices do vary from Civ to Civ. France and India are the cheapest in the PTW version.

Renata